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Oh AutoCAD – sometimes we have to use it, in this case because the architect to the project where we provide the structural model uses it. Insult to injury – it’s AutoCAD architecture.

And the Queen – AutoCAD is clearly aging, and in our opinion the “Architecture” part is still a haphazardly attempt to achieve something even the Court of Autodesk might have forgotten why it is there.

Nonetheless – it is there and we have to live with it and make the best out of it.

So here is the workflow which turned out to be wrong – a step-by-step guide how not to use AutoCAD Architecture files as a backdrop in your BIM. and if you really need to – avoid the trap…

Step 1 – open the DWG and check:

Look at the door opening and try to remember how it looks like. Now we look at it in 3D (which takes AutoCAD some time to switch to – like 2 minutes plus…)

Its AutoCAD Architecture – we have 3D objects – hurray…

But now – due diligence – we Wblock out the part of interest to make the DWG more digestible for Revit. Using Wblock has been our standard practice to clean up DWGs for use in Revit – until this happened:

Where did the wall opening go? Got lost by Wblock.

After some research we found the way – first nuke AutoCAD Architecture and make it straight AutoCAD again – the command is AECTOACAD or -EXPORTTOAUTOCAD – this sends all AutoCAD Architecture objects to the bin (where they belong) to and leaves you with a fairly clean simple AutoCAD DWG…

Now you can clean up the resulting file to your hearts content and Revit will be happy when you link the DWG.